You probably don't want to be selling digital downloads for $0.01

jfriend

Here's a gotcha that other people with pro accounts may want to watch out for.

I set my portfolio pricing to $0.01 over cost so that I can get tracking information on all sales. When Smugmug introduced metallic prints, I wanted to make sure people could purchase them so I cleared my default pricing and then reset everything to $0.01 over, thinking that's what I wanted.

Unbeknownst to me, that priced digital downloads at $0.01. Today, I got an email that one of my soccer parents had bought 15 - 4MB images for 0.01 each for a grand total of $0.15 on his credit card (a transaction I'm sure Smugmug probably loses money on). That's not what either one of us intended. In this particular gallery, I actually allow soccer parents to download the originals for free if they just choose "Save Photo".

So, I went in and zeroed out the prices for all digital downloads so now that won't happen again.

If changing your pricing enmasse, keep an eye on the digital download pricing separately.

Matt S

jfriend wrote:

Here's a gotcha that other people with pro accounts may want to watch out for.

I set my portfolio pricing to $0.01 over cost so that I can get tracking information on all sales. When Smugmug introduced metallic prints, I wanted to make sure people could purchase them so I cleared my default pricing and then reset everything to $0.01 over, thinking that's what I wanted.

Unbeknownst to me, that priced digital downloads at $0.01. Today, I got an email that one of my soccer parents had bought 15 - 4MB images for 0.01 each for a grand total of $0.15 on his credit card (a transaction I'm sure Smugmug probably loses money on). That's not what either one of us intended. In this particular gallery, I actually allow soccer parents to download the originals for free if they just choose "Save Photo".

So, I went in and zeroed out the prices for all digital downloads so now that won't happen again.

If changing your pricing enmasse, keep an eye on the digital download pricing separately.

Yeah it happened to me too. I decided to raise all my pricing by $3.00. Previous to this I did not allow digital downloads. An email from a customer with a question about my $3 downloads clued me in. I ended up selling her a disk for a way too reasonable rate, and ate the loss of print sales. It was my mistake, but boy I did not see it coming.

kelleejeandesigns

Appropriate Pricing
Hi! So what is, in your opinion, appropriate pricing for prints and digital files and cds?? It is so hard to figure out where to start!!

thanks!
kellee

Matt S

kelleejeandesigns wrote:

Hi! So what is, in your opinion, appropriate pricing for prints and digital files and cds?? It is so hard to figure out where to start!!

thanks!
kellee

I don't do downloads due to the vast aray of things I shoot. One, I could end up providing licence to someone of a shot that I don't have a model release for. Two, I would sure hate to licence a photo for use at a "standard" rate only to find out that it is (insert big company here)'s new feature of a nation wide ad campain. Typically the price for commercial use of photos is based upon the intended use. Since smugmug does not (and I really don't know how it could) provide a sliding scale of price for usage I don't engage this function on my galleries. I have customers contact me directly.

I realize that for personal use, this point is not valid, but I like to error on the side of safety.

For my print pricing just click on any photo in my galleries to see what I charge. I have different prices for portrait work vs. my natural history images. www.mattswallingphotography.com

Jamfore

downloads
I dont do any downloads either. I want my customer to buy prints not to download them and give them away.